Our new Soup Kitchen Hoop House is Finished !!

January 18, 2008 — gardenproject

Despite wind, snow and cold the students pulled together to finish the construction of our new four season experimental greenhouse. On a rare warm, calm day we stretched the plastic over the entire structure. Beautiful days followed and the greenhouse warmed enough for the ground to thaw. Yesterday the kids turned over the soil to ready it for planting. It is a great feeling to turn soil in our garden in the middle of the winter!

We also uncovered our experimental underground worm bin in the middle of the new greenhouse which had been insulated with layers of leaves. The worms were still happy so we added more worms and bedding from the heated greenhouse.

We are fortunate to have the PAWS students in our school managing the lunch waste as they never fail to collect the day’s lunch waste for our worms. Go PAWS !!

Our goal is to plant spinach and other greens by the beginning of February for an early spring harvest. Some of our Green Thumb students are working with us on a thermal solar design for heating the soil in our hoop house to speed plant growth. The plan is to measure the temperature difference (if any) in our hoop house beds with and without our root zone heating system.